Conservative Support for Gay Marriage

posted March 9, 2004 by Jer

I just heard humanity at it's finest.

I was listening to Neal Conan's "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio, and the topic today was gay marriage and why people are for or against it. Now, folks who have been reading Splurd know that both Xrys and myself are quite vocally for gay marriage, so I was listening to the program quite attentively.

The first guest was a priest who said scripture says marriage means man+woman, end of argument. Following him was an anthropologist who analyzed gay marriage in Europe and claimed that marriage based on love instead of potential parenting essentially dissolved marriage as an parenting institution. A caller pointed out how within the last 80 years, humanity believed that interracial marriage was an affront to nature, but we evolved beyond that. Another caller supported the ability of same sex couples to love and raise a child who was otherwise abandoned by "traditional" marriage.

This, however, is the call that got me. A gentlemen called in from Memphis Tennessee. His voice sounded like he was from Memphis Tennessee. He introduced himself as a strong member of a Protestant church. My initial expectation was "Hoo-boy, here comes the hate." He wasn't calling with hate though, he was calling with humanity.

The next thing he admitted was that he was undecided on the issue. He said his church was clear about it's standing, and he did stand by his church's teachings. However, he did not believe this was a choice that the government was to make. He believed that whether a marriage is recognized by a religious institution is up to that institution to decide, and that it is not the government's place to discriminate. He also addressed the issue of "sin." He said that yes, his church taught that homosexuality was a sin, but he believed even stronger in what J.C. said about every human having sin, and it's not his place to condemn it when he - being human - has also sinned. He concluded with the fact that over half the marriages he personally performed ended with divorce, and he could honestly not see how allowing homosexual marriages could damage the already damaged sanctity of the institution of marriage.

For those of you interested in listening to the program, it will be available online here. I would like to believe that the argument this gentlemen presented will show at least a few conservatives that they can stand strong on their morals and accept differences at the same time. Maybe I'm being to optimistic, but when I encounter sparks of humanity like this, I can't help it.